Child mortality drops below 10 million.

• Author: Doherty, Hannah
• Position: VITAL SIGNS

In 2006, the latest year for which data are available, the world's child mortality rate (the annual number of deaths among children under five per 1,000 live births) dropped to 72, a 20-percent decline since 1990. For the first time since recordkeeping began in 1960, annual child mortality fell below 10 million, to 9.7 million, which was less than half the number who died before reaching five in 1960. Despite the steady decline, however, disparities between and within regions continue to grow. In the poorest households in developing countries the annual rate is 107 deaths per 1,000 live births; the overall rate in industrial nations is 6 deaths per 1,000 live births,

A number of countries in Latin America, such as Cuba and Chile, have lowered their child mortality rates by more than 50 percent since 1990 and are more than halfway to cutting them by two-thirds, the target set out in the Millennium Development...